Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus including a plurality of image pickup units, and a method of controlling the image pickup apparatus, and more particularly to an image pickup apparatus that performs control according to azimuth when photographing.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been known an image pickup apparatus, such as a digital camera, as an image processing apparatus. In the image pickup apparatus, as the capacity of a recording medium is increased, it is required that desired image data can be searched for from the recording medium, to thereby enable a user to enjoy efficient image viewing.
In the meanwhile, as a mobile phone or a smartphone, there has been proposed one which is equipped with an image pickup apparatus for photographing an viewer (or a photographer) and an image pickup apparatus for photographing an object, such that the viewer and the object can be recorded at the same time. In such a mobile phone, etc., it is required that an image is efficiently displayed in a viewing direction of a user such that the user can enjoy viewing the image.
For example, there has been disclosed an image pickup apparatus which is configured to control a direction of display of an object image displayed on a display section based on a face image photographed by a digital camera (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-177819). In this image pickup apparatus, the vertical direction of the face image of the user is determined, and according to the determined direction, the direction of display of the object image displayed on the display section is controlled. With this control, the object image is displayed by causing the direction of display of the object image to match the vertical direction of the face image, independently of a posture of the user or how the camera is used or held.
By the way, in the image pickup apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-177819, although it is described that the direction of display of the object image is controlled according to the vertical direction of a face image, display of a synthesized image obtained by synthesizing the face image and the object image on the display section is not performed. In short, in the image pickup apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-177819, synthesis and display of the two images is not performed.
Further, when a synthesized image is to be displayed on the display section, adjustment of a direction of display of the synthesized image according to the azimuth of the image pickup apparatus is not performed by the image pickup apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-177819, either. More specifically, when a synthesized image is displayed on the display section, the image pickup apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-177819 cannot control a direction of display of the synthesized image according to the azimuth of the image pickup apparatus, which makes it difficult for the user to enjoy excellent viewing of the synthesized image.